A common quandary facing small yet successful breweries is how to expand production to meet demand. For these operations, most of which operate out of business or industrial park suites, that means moving to a larger facility or, more often, taking over a neighboring space. In both cases, it requires the purchase of a larger brewing system, more cellar vessels or both. The significant expense of purchasing such equipment and leasing the space to house it makes that difficult or impossible. Just because a business has maxed out its production capacity doesn’t mean they are rolling in profits…or even profitable. Brewpubs with finite space face similar challenges and typically have fewer options.
One local brewpub, La Jolla Brewing Company (LJBC), hopes they’ve come up with a solution in a work-in-progress venture called Fighter Town Brewing Company. LJBC’s ownership has leased a 41,900-square-foot facility at 5995 Pacific Center Boulevard, Suite 101 in Sorrento Valley. Located next to Qualcomm’s headquarters, it will be outfitted with a 30-barrel brewhouse (expandable to 120-barrel capacity) that will allow LJBC to produce up to 200,000 barrels of beer on an annual basis. Though packaging and distributing beer has always been in LJBC’s business plan, this is an excessive volume for the small coastal brewpub. But this equipment won’t just be for them. If they have their way, it will be for all brewing companies in need of help meeting their production goals.
Fighter Town Brewing is envisioned as San Diego’s premier contract brewery. In addition to helping local brewing operations looking to grow, the facility will be geared toward helping national brands and Mexico-based brewers wanting to brew in and gain a foothold within San Diego County. Production will be overseen by “brewer in residence” Karl Ockert, a veteran with more than 15 years of experience as brewmaster at Portland, Oregon’s BridgePort Brewing Company, preceded by stints at numerous Pacific Northwest breweries and a job as a supervising brewer for Anheuser-Busch.
With the exception of Latitude 33 Brewing Company, no local brewery is offering services of this nature, and none in this large a capacity. In addition to brewing and cellaring services, Fighter Town will also provide packaging options (kegs, bottles and cans). The plan also includes installing a tasting room at Fighter Town, where any beers produced on-site will be available for visitors to try. Private event rooms will also be constructed. The long-term goal is to open as many as six Fighter Town tasting rooms across San Diego County and partner with successful breweries to help them open tasting rooms here and in other parts of Southern California, as well.
The LJBC team is currently seeking investors to realize this project. Its lease on the Sorrento Valley property extends for 10 years with two five-year extension options. Once open, LJBC will brew its beers with the plan to distribute throughout California, Arizona and Mexico.